As
mentioned above Xfrog 4 adds a number of Procedural Objects to your Host
Application which resemble the Components inside Xfrog 3.5. Some things
have been merged together, a few things have been broken out into new
Objects, some functionality is taken over completely by the host
application and there are completely new things as well. Here are a few
examples:
Phyllotaxis
Phyllotaxis is the botanical term for plant organ
arrangements formerly addressed by Xfrog 3.5's PhiBall Component. It
multiplies an input object on an abitrary surface of revolution (PhiBall
only handled distribution on spheres or ellipsoids). This Object can
be used to create all sorts of plant objects based on rotational arrangements
like pinecones, flower petals, seedheads, pineapples, etc.
Branch
The Branch Object basically merges the former Horn, Tree and
Leaf components into one Object, combining their power and flexibility.
This Object extrudes Shape Objects along a Input Spline Curve and/or
arranges other Objects along this curve, with a huge amount of control
on how this arragement is done. This Object is all you need to create
branching structures as complex as you can imagine. Mesh detail is
now decoupled from the Branch Positions and can even be adaptive.
Any Spline can be used as Tree Shape (even Text Splines).
Curvature
The Curvature is a new Spline Object which has
been broken out of the Horn/Leaf components. It is not like conventional
Spline Curves defined by a number of Control Points and an algorithm
to create a smooth Curve based on those, but it is defined implicitly
by the Curvature which can be specified for every point along the
curve. This way it's easy to create and animate naturally looking/growing
leaf of twig shapes. It can be used in conjuction with the new Xfrog
Objects but since it's available as a regular Spline Type in the
Host Application it can be used like any other Spline! Adaptive generation
of intermediate points is supported.
Hydra
The Hydra Object distributes other Objects on a ring shape, providing
advanced control over orientation, size, etc. It is basically equivalent
to the Hydra Component in Xfrog 3.5, including the functionality formerly
contained in the Wreath Component as well.
Variation
The Variation Object is probably what you always hoped for. It
is used with other multiplier
Objects to alternatingly iterate different Objects with
the same multiplier Object.
You can have different kinds of branches coming out of the same trrunk,
you can have different kinds of leaves coming out of the same branch
etc. The iterated Objects can alternate regularly, randomly or it
is possible
to assign exceptions for specific positions.
Tropism
The Tropism Object allows to define force fields to orient splines
into a certain direction. The Object can be used for exaple to define
light sources and make splines turn towards this lightsource - this
is e.g. the perfect tool to make flowers follow the sun. In the same
way it is possible to make all branches of a tree hang down as if they
were attracted by gravitation. Now Tropisms are available as an independent
object, they can be combined with any spline, you can use several Tropisms
in a row, you can use any object as the interest for the orientation...
in brief: You have incredible flexibility.
More general improvements are:
- Every longitudinal Parameter can now be controlled with a Spline Curve and abitrary mathematical expressions
- Soft Insertion of new Objects when Child Object Count is animated
- Objects contain Level Of Detail handling
- Every Parameter is animatable
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